Media about the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Guard Ivan Malyarenko: “An FPV-drone broke near me. There was a friend in front of me who I tried to cover up.”
When the full-scale war began, Ivan Malyarenko worked as a physical education teacher, teacher and instructor in the “Spas” handshake at the Zaporizhzhya boarding school “Cossack Lyceum”. He joined the National Guard in late February 2022, later becoming a platoon commander. He fought in the Zaporizhzhya direction, where he received a severe battle wound, saving his comrades.
“What motivated me to leave was not only that I was worried about my relatives, but also that the Russians were beating on residential buildings, children were killed,” he says.
We met Ivan in the rehabilitation center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, where he was recovering from severe injuries. But less was said about fighting, and more about how to find the motivation to live on when you lose not only a limb, but also an eye, which is important for rehabilitation, how to learn to sit if you have been bedridden for a long time.
“An FPV drone broke down near me. In front of me was a friend whom I was trying to cover up. I thought at that moment: “I already have nuts, and let him still live,” Ivan Malyarenko tells his story.
But my friend also broke his leg. And since there was a long evacuation, he also had his leg amputated.
“I was a heavy 300th, so they tried to evacuate me first. We had to go far. I was unconscious, I remember everything. Only when I was overloaded into the ambulance, I fainted,” recalls the guard.
He says doctors told him he had survived two clinical deaths while he was taken to Zaporozhye.
“But in that world I didn't like it, I went back,” our hero says with a smile.
Read the full interview with the guard Ivan Malyarenko on the CENSOR website - here.
Department of Communications of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine
